I finally got to go to Royal Tavern tonight, and was impressed with their vegan options. I had the grilled sweet potato banh mi sandwich, and my BF had something gigantic with tempeh (tempeh club maybe?). Both were delicious! I don't even usually like tempeh, but that was a good sandwich. Both came with a yummy dill pickle and good fries and a little dish of vegan mayo for dipping the fries. We weren't sure at first if the mayo was vegan or not but we asked and they said if you order a vegan meal it comes with vegan mayo. We were too stuffed to have dessert, but I asked and they said that nearly all their desserts were vegan.

Was just thinking about going here for dinner Friday, I love royal tavern. The tempeh club and sweet potato bahn mi are deeeelicious! Love the fries too.

Thoughts on the pope? I havent been there since the early summer and I noticed the menu has become more vegan friendly since then. I thought it was pretty good, not my favorite gastropub, but still pretty good for what it is. I saw they have vegan mac n cheez on the menu now, very curious about that.

Thoughts on the pope? I havent been there since the early summer and I noticed the menu has become more vegan friendly since then. I thought it was pretty good, not my favorite gastropub, but still pretty good for what it is. I saw they have vegan mac n cheez on the menu now, very curious about that.

I'm a big fan of POPE, though I only discovered it recently and have not had a ton of visits. I like the menu, but haven't tried anything to recommend. Mostly I love the (weeknight) atmosphere and how you get a great mix of old-locals and new-locals. The weekends are really busy there. The staff - so far as I've experienced - is awesome. The bartenders I've had are cool and I have a crush on at least two of the waitresses.

I went to POPE once and probably won't go back since I found it quite disappointing. We got the seitan fingers, vegan cheesesteak, and fries with vegan cheese. The seitan fingers were good. The fries were not good (limp and soggy) and the "cheese" that came with them was some sort of bland creamy sauce stuff. It reminded me of my very first attempt back in the day at making vegan cheese sauce. The cheesesteak was just blah and kind of gross. Probably if I had drunk a lot more beer than I did I would have thought it was perfect bar food. On the plus side they had a really good beer selection, but so does Royal Tavern and the food there was a million times better.

My favorites are Royal Tavern and Belgian Cafe. Not sure the definition--I always just assumed it was a bar with a better menu than just standard bar food (like cooked entrees instead of just wings, fries and beer nuts).

My favorites are Royal Tavern and Belgian Cafe. Not sure the definition--I always just assumed it was a bar with a better menu than just standard bar food (like cooked entrees instead of just wings, fries and beer nuts).

I was ready to mock this term (though not you, because I have certainly heard it elsewhere) but...

Wikipedia wrote:

A gastropub concentrates on quality food. The name is a combination of pub and gastronomy and was coined in 1991 when David Eyre and Mike Belben took over The Eagle pub in Clerkenwell, London.[56] The concept of a restaurant in a pub reinvigorated both pub culture and British dining,[57] though has occasionally attracted criticism for potentially removing the character of traditional pubs.[58]

...I would never mock a creation of English pub culture. Hrmm... I'm thinking Eulogy. I'm often thinking Eulogy actually. Love that place.

I'm going here for brunch/lunch tomorrow! Wow having visitors in knocks a whole lotta of must-go restaurants of my list! Should get the tempeh club or the sweet potato banh mi? Or something else? It looks like the tempeh club is the winner but I need more talking. :)

As far as the POPE, I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to eat there. However, it is lovely for when you're out anyway and find yourself suddenly hungry and you can order some fried food to go with your beer. I like the seitan fingers. Their vegan cheese sauce is typically terrible. I think it is flour and water. Sometimes they have interesting specials.

The POPE has been my neighborhood and go to bar for years and I'm a big fan. The real reason to go there is for the beer, not so much for the food. Their beer list is fantastic and they change their draft list frequently. The vegan/vegetarian food has changed and while there's more options, it could be a bit better. It's not bad, but I want it to be awesome. Hopefully, it will get there. The bartenders there are super wonderful and if you don't go on a weekend night, you'll have a chill experience.

I love the tempeh club at Royal Tavern. It's soooo good, and they give you so much! Great sandwich. For real. I don't get over there much because it can get really crowded and if you don't have a table or a bar seat, there's really no where for you to enjoy your beer and hang out for awhile.

I really like the South Philadelphia Tap Room. It's right down the street for me, but that's not the only reason I love it. Good beer. Good food. Awesome happy hour. Nice environment.

I finally tried the sweet potato bahn mi. Really nice sandwich. Not filling, but the veggies were fresh and tasy and the sweet potato was nice and soft. I also tried, for the first time, the smoked cole slaw - fantastic. I live on the wrong side of town. All the good stuff is in the lower-right corner and I'm in the middle-left. Bah.

I went to royal with some friends the other night. None of us were impressed. We shared the sloppy joe (which came on a long roll instead of a hamburger bun), the banh mi and the club.

The tempeh on the club was very plain-it tasted like it hadn't been marinated in anything. The sloppy joe was ok. It was weird that it came on a long roll. As for the banh mi, I think it's misnamed. It's more of a sweet potato hoagie; it doesn't have the flavor profile of a traditional banh mi